The Taxonomic Classification System

LEARNING OUTCOMES

 Relate the taxonomic classification system and binomial nomenclature

Taxonomy (which literally means “arrangement law”) is the science of classifying

organisms to construct internationally shared classification systems with each organism
placed into more and more inclusive groupings. Think about how a grocery store is
organized. One large space is divided into departments, such as produce, dairy, and
meats. Then each department further divides into aisles, then each aisle into categories
and brands, and then finally a single product. This organization from larger to smaller,
more specific categories is called a hierarchical system.

The taxonomic classification system (also called the Linnaean system after its inventor,
Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician) uses a hierarchical model.
Moving from the point of origin, the groups become more specific, until one branch ends
as a single species. For example, after the common beginning of all life, scientists
divide organisms into three large categories called a domain: Bacteria, Archaea, and
Eukarya. Within each domain is a second category called a kingdom. After kingdoms,
the subsequent categories of increasing specificity
are: phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The taxonomic classification system uses a hierarchical model to organize living organisms into
increasingly specific categories. The common dog, Canis lupus familiaris, is a subspecies of Canis lupus, which
also includes the wolf and dingo. (credit “dog”: modification of work by Janneke Vreugdenhil)

The kingdom Animalia stems from the Eukarya domain. For the common dog, the
classification levels would be as shown in Figure 1. Therefore, the full name of an
organism technically has eight terms. For the dog, it is: Eukarya, Animalia, Chordata,
Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae, Canis, and lupus. Notice that each name is capitalized
except for species, and the genus and species names are italicized. Scientists generally
refer to an organism only by its genus and species, which is its two-word scientific
name, in what is called binomial nomenclature. Therefore, the scientific name of the
dog is Canis lupus. The name at each level is also called a taxon. In other words, dogs
are in order Carnivora. Carnivora is the name of the taxon at the order level; Canidae is
the taxon at the family level, and so forth. Organisms also have a common name that
people typically use, in this case, dog. Note that the dog is additionally a subspecies:
the “familiaris” in Canis lupus familiaris. Subspecies are members of the same species
that are capable of mating and reproducing viable offspring, but they are considered
separate subspecies due to geographic or behavioral isolation or other factors.

Figure 2 shows how the levels move toward specificity with other organisms. Notice
how the dog shares a domain with the widest diversity of organisms, including plants
and butterflies. At each sublevel, the organisms become more similar because they are
more closely related. Historically, scientists classified organisms using characteristics,
but as DNA technology developed, more precise phylogenies have been determined.

PRACTICE QUESTION